I definitely think there should be a Veteran Rewards program, but I don't think it should be free or discounted Character Services. not every paying customer who's been subbed for 7 years has purchased those nor has any intention of purchasing them.

"So my advice is to argue based on the reasons stated, not try to make up or guess at reasons and argue those."
Greg Street, Riot Developer - 12:50 PM - 25 May 2015

Since a truly loyal customer wouldn't quit anyway, what good would it do Blizzard? Seems like a waste of resources.

Instead, they should focus on borderline customers who have a chance of quitting, who could be swayed, and those who aren't currently playing, but could be lured back.

Borderline customers? Players are always threatening to quit the game and don't actually do so. The amount of people that cry out that they're going to quit the game if changes X and Y are made is ridiculous and how many of those players actually quit?

My reward for purchasing Blizz products/services is the product/service I paid for. Nothing more, nothing less. Their reward for making the content is my money.

No more rewards are needed. Heck, life itself only rewards you with death for long a true service :P

If you add me on Steam, Skype or whatever program/client I share my info for, please write something to identify you in the "Dude/gal wants to join your club"-message. Just so I know that an actual human is on the other end :P

My reward for purchasing Blizz products/services is the product/service I paid for. Nothing more, nothing less. Their reward for making the content is my money.

No more rewards are needed. Heck, life itself only rewards you with death for long a true service :P

People wouldn't have any problems with a lack of a "Veteran Rewards" program if Blizzard didn't award people who had quit with a free copy of Cataclysm, a free level 80, free epic riding, free gear, and free gold.

The fact that the Scroll of Resurrection promotion was implemented opened a pandora's box of customers who feel like their loyalty isn't worth as much to the company as people who had quit.

"So my advice is to argue based on the reasons stated, not try to make up or guess at reasons and argue those."
Greg Street, Riot Developer - 12:50 PM - 25 May 2015

Borderline customers? Players are always threatening to quit the game and don't actually do so. The amount of people that cry out that they're going to quit the game if changes X and Y are made is ridiculous and how many of those players actually quit?

The borderline customers are the ones that have a real chance of quitting, as indicated by Blizzzard's internal metrics.

Loyal customers, by definition, don't have a real chance of quitting.

"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"Almost every time I have gotten to know a critic personally, they keep up with the criticism but lose the venom." -- Ghostcrawler
I hate these casual Fridays ruining it for real Fridays.

I'm not sure what game you are playing, it seems to me that a large portion of the playerbase are angry already.

Yes, they are already angry. They were angry in the past and will remain angry in the future. Any people who de-angrify will be replaced with new angry people to carry the torch for years to come.

I don't really have much of a point except to say that there are too many angry people. Adding a few more probably won't tip the scales much. What we really need is something to reduce all that ang....WAIT, I KNOW!

Blizz didn't award people. Award is an awful choice of words, since it implies that all you need to do to be guaranteed stuff is to quit.

But seriously, loyalty to a company is an absurd concept. Don't we give them our money because they have something we want(access to servers)? I mean, great, other people get shiny things. So? The only difference between a "loyal" customer and someone who quit is that the "loyal" customer continues paying for a product. This isn't a friendship between you and the friendly neighbourhood Blizzard, it's a trade agreement. You fork over the sub fee, you get to play for a month and help in-game when needed. That's as long as the relationship extends. "Loyalty" doesn't enter the picture at any point, as far as I can see.

If you add me on Steam, Skype or whatever program/client I share my info for, please write something to identify you in the "Dude/gal wants to join your club"-message. Just so I know that an actual human is on the other end :P

Most of the suggestions I've seen are for things that people wouldn't stay for in any case. I really don't see a lot of people saying they really like the game but they quit because server transfers are too expensive. We're probably a lot closer to the day than anyone thinks when server transfers won't be an issue in any case but that's another thread. So customer retention isn't really part of the equation.

And who qualifies as a vet anyway? What if they do this and decide the customer loyalty program goes back to people who spent at least 30 days in vanilla and have not let their subscription lapse in the meanwhile? I don't see a lot of happy people for that.

Another something like the AP that has some stuff in it seems likely someday although it's difficult to say how many people liked the AP versus the forum types that continually bitched about how they were somehow hypnotized into signing up when they didn't want to.

The problem is that a loyalty program based on tenure separates one group of players from another and philosophically that's a very bad thing. Generally it's terrible to treat one set of customers in a completely different way than others. The only place where that really works is non-profits and charitable organizations.

So we'll see. But it's true: everybody likes free or discounted stuff and can think of rationales in which they deserve it.

EDIT: Just to piss people off, I'll say that what Blizzard really needs to do is to figure out how to get new players into the game. That's difficult...really difficult...and the incentives that they would need to make it have a real shot at working would probably make everyone else livid.

Last edited by MoanaLisa; 2013-02-17 at 02:21 AM.

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EDIT: Just to piss people off, I'll say that what Blizzard really needs to do is to figure out how to get new players into the game. That's difficult...really difficult...and the incentives that they would need to make it have a real shot at working would probably make everyone else livid.

I don't see why that would piss people off. That should be their aim, I'd like to see more rewards for new people, or more incentives to start playing. I don't think anyone is gonna be like "Omg look at all these new people! This blows!"... well maybe the people who chanted wrathbaby.... but their busy bitching about other stuff atm I think.

The borderline customers are the ones that have a real chance of quitting, as indicated by Blizzzard's internal metrics.

Loyal customers, by definition, don't have a real chance of quitting.

But wouldnt that encourage people to BECOME loyal if we had "veteran program"?
Not: "You are already loyal why would we give stuff to you. We give it all to this guy who subs for month or two and quits constantly and subs at random times again, if he keeps doing that we will just increase the bonuses till they become loyal and then give nothing special"

"If you become loyal look at all this cool stuff you could get!" - isnt that what most supermarkets use on their bonus cards?
At least there they do - join to our bonuspoint card-program, get sales on items and get points which you can use to get more sales. (Just 500 dollars spent and you will get 5 dollar coupon! wow!)

edit:

Originally Posted by Broloth

People wouldn't have any problems with a lack of a "Veteran Rewards" program if Blizzard didn't award people who had quit with a free copy of Cataclysm, a free level 80, free epic riding, free gear, and free gold.

The fact that the Scroll of Resurrection promotion was implemented opened a pandora's box of customers who feel like their loyalty isn't worth as much to the company as people who had quit.

Like this, yeah. Veterans might "already have all that" but the idea of whole "oh you will get it free! YOU are important to us" is bit not-so-cool. Thats why veteran program would also need to be different from this - unless free epic riding for all alts becomes a thing...

Last edited by Iceleaf; 2013-02-17 at 02:31 AM.

"when women wear makeup they’re basically lying to us"
Well, I don’t see why women are being blamed if man is stupid enough to really think they have red and gold eyelids.

And who qualifies as a vet anyway? What if they do this and decide the customer loyalty program goes back to people who spent at least 30 days in vanilla and have not let their subscription lapse in the meanwhile? I don't see a lot of happy people for that.

Easy, you set up a tier of rewards based off how many months you've been subbed for.

3 months? You get this
6 months? You get this
12 months? You get this
2 years? You get this

The rewards aren't out of reach for those who are new or have had lapsed subs, because they'll get them eventually. This immediatly awards the people who haven't unsubbed from vanilla while being fair to those who did take breaks.

"So my advice is to argue based on the reasons stated, not try to make up or guess at reasons and argue those."
Greg Street, Riot Developer - 12:50 PM - 25 May 2015

UO, in about it´s 4th year started introducing veteran rewards. They were statues for your house, or tubs that could be used to dye your armor unique colors. Funny as it seems now, nobody could dye their clothing black before they introduced them as vet rewards.

It ended up being like everything else.. so common that there was no purpose to them.

I think Blizzard is doing fine, things like heirlooms and stuff like that give older players a huge advantage in some aspects of the game. Would it be anything special if we got a mount after our 5th year or whatever.. soon the server would be swamped with them and nobody would use them anyway..

Not at all related to this, but I sure as hell wish that WoW had a Legacy thing like TOR. I want a last name

Not so much for the Last name but all the perks? Heck yes they need this and it should be account wide not just server. However not Bnet wide. Also make it all by doing in game stuff not the pay for store crap.